china landscape architect » china

Happy and Prosperous Year of the Dragon

Damian Holmes — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 07:06:15 +0000

The rabbit is bounding away and the dragon is just around the corner as we celebrate the coming of the Year of the Dragon. Chinese New Year in China is always an interesting time of year, lots of people go home, Shanghai turns into somewhat of ghost town(in comparison to the raging Spring/Summer period) taxis are a little easier to get. This year we will be staying in China but many people are heading south to warmer climates to get away from the chilly winds.

On a personal note, I get mixed versions of my fortune from reading on the web and offline, but I will forge on into the Year of Dragon by putting a few different ideas into to action to make this year even better. Wish everyone a happy and prosperous Year of the Dragon.

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What’s in a name? Companies that use country of origin to become ‘international’

Damian Holmes — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 06:44:46 +0000

There is a growing number of landscape firms in China, some are foreign, some local and many a mix (often referred to as sino-american or sino-australia, etc). The company names are interesting to read some a very simple and aimed at a certain market, others keep their name from abroad or just create a literal translation of their name in Chinese. There is however a disturbing trend of ‘international’ firms in China that are international in name only. These are the chinese firms that register a name in Australia, USA, Canada, UK or another country and state that they are an international company. This is disturbing to me as many do not have any international staff or qualifications but are utilising the simple business registration laws in overseas countries.

Many of these firms are in a ‘rush to the bottom’ by alluding to clients that they are international – they maybe in a legal sense but not culturally or in their design approach. The reason many developers and governments engage international firms is to gain the broad experience and talented staff that many international firms have at their disposal. This is not to say there aren’t good local chinese firms with talented designers – there are many. However, the illusion the ‘international’ companies are creating will in the long run hurt their company, the country they supposedly represent and the landscape design industry in China. I am not disturbed that they are using international names or countries as selling point, I am disturbed that they are harming landscape architecture in China, which is very young although China has a long history of garden and landscape design, the landscape architecture profession is relatively immature.

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Changing landscape uses in China

chinala — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 05:20:11 +0000

Use of landscape and recreation is changing in China. Over the last few years I have been in China landscape uses have changed from passive uses(people watching, reading, singing & card/table games) with a some active uses(dancing, exercises, badminton & kite flying) to more and more different uses. There has been a great increase in active(roller blading, basketball, tennis, football(soccer), running, dog walking/running) and passive (more younger people reading/chatting on phones, computers and electronic devices). As landscape architects we need to address this increase in uses not only in designing parks but also for future planning. Future planning is one area that requires greater involvement from landscape architects and government, there are numerous passive parks around major cities and new cities but not enough future planning for active recreation.

Passive Recreation

In The Park from Ricardo Mendialdua on Vimeo.

There is also a change in the use of regional and national parks as tourism increases and younger (&older) generations start to get participate in ‘newer’ sports such as skateboarding, bmx/fixies, rollerblading, skiing, snowboarding although not that new to western countries these are burgeoning sports that are spreading across the nation. Although Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou may already have some of the facilities for these sports there is a need for urban designers, landscape architects and landscape planners to plan for these future uses. Leaving planning to later will lead to ad-hoc landscape design and planning along with devastated landscapes as developers & government see a need in the market and rush to provide facilities. Also remembering that there are sports and uses that haven’t been invented yet and that unplanned or disused areas (not oversized plazas) are needed to allow new forms of recreation will be created and grow.

Active Recreation

Shanghai Basketball from Paul Hammond on Vimeo.

Snowboarding
“串儿 (chuan’r)” is a snow boarding video parks in Beijing – one indoor park and one outdoor park. Also is shows that brands and parks are blurring the lines between public, private spaces and park funding.

mellowparks.cn “串儿 (chuan’r)” teaser from Steve Zdarsky on Vimeo.

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Keynote by Kongjian Yu (俞孔坚土人设计)at IFLA 2011 Congress in Zurich [Video]

chinala — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 13:47:17 +0000

Kongjian Yu (俞孔坚) gave a keynote at the IFLA 2011 Congress in Zurich which give a brief history of his career and then moves on to his ideas about Big Foot Landscape/Urbanism. Kongjian Yu has been key in changing the attitude in China from traditional landscape gardening or landscape as floral art and creating a vision of landscape architecture as natural landscape. His projects have won numerous ASLA and other awards across the world for his parks and especially the Houtan Park designed as a wetland park on the rivers edge of the Shanghai EXPO 2010 park. Houtan Park is a landscape that is used by many in China as best-practice for wetland design.

Anyone wishing to know more about landscape architecture would be well-served in watching this keynote at IFLA.

Landscape architecture: Keynote of Kongjian Yu from hayal oezkan on Vimeo.

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Landscape architecture in China needs to become more professional

Damian Holmes — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:57:42 +0000

I have been working in China for over 6 years as a landscape architect and there are many differences in comparison to Australia and Canada where I have worked before including size of the project, speed of design and the materials used (some good some bad). But the biggest difference that strikes me about the profession is the lack of professionalism among designers, technicans and new graduates. I am not talking about whether they dress in suits, take short cuts or lie to clients (the last two obviously not professional) but what I am referring to is that the role of a landscape architect in China is very blurred. In western countries, landscape architects are seen as professional consultants and advisers where their advice to clients is in the best interests of society, clients, collegues and the landscape & environment.

In China, many clients are using architects or landscape architects for the first time and often see us as merely facilitating their vision and what they often don’t see or receive is the professional expertise that we can give clients to make their vision come true to last for decades. However, it has dawned on me over the years that many in the profession of landscape architecture in China don’t understand their role as a professional. They see their role as designing or constructing the landscape in the best interest of speed and saving money not the long term longevity of the clients project or the environment. This has occurred for many reasons, many of us strive to become registered landscape architects in our home countries where we go through a test/s and interview and have to sign a membership agreement to adhere to a set of rules and regulations regarding professional conduct. Professionals acting on behalf of the best interests of the client, the environment and your professional integrity whether your designing a masterplan or working on-site as client representative.

Why has this come up? Well, it just seems to frustrate me that many of my colleagues in the profession in China see their role as merely facilitating the clients wishes rather than advising the client as a professional on the best approach to their project or current issue for the long term not just the short term. I am not saying all landscape architects in China act this way but it just seems to be a reoccurring mindset.

How the chinese profession addresses this issue is left to be seen as the contemporary landscape architecture profession is still very young and growing with members every year. I hope that landscape architects in China become more professional and advise on the best interests of the environment, their clients and their fellow world citizens.

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Shanghai starts promoting Precast Concrete in Construction

Damian Holmes — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 04:37:13 +0000

Nearly every building, landscape and piece of construction in China uses insitu concrete (on-site poured) concrete. There are many issues with on-site concrete include

Pollution: On site pollution, waste, noise, trucks, on-site mixers, soil compaction, water pollution

Inefficient Usage: Concrete goes off (bad) quickly if not used within 20-30 minutes, transport needs to be fast (causing issues with speeding trucks, pollution, etc), testing is lacking and can cause waste.

Finish: Final finishes can be too rough or inaccurate, requires rendering/screeding to get a good final finish.

Today, I read that Shanghai will start using Precast Concrete (PC) for many of its residential to save on energy, construction pollution and noise, however it will raise costs. I think it’s good to see Shanghai embracing a technique used across the world to construction various buildings including residential, commercial and industrial. The other reason as an landscape architect I am happy to see this occurring is that it will flow on to other industries including landscape and thus allowing designers to create interesting shapes and finishes in the landscape.

The move to Precast Concrete will also be good for Shanghai as it will reduce the number of large concrete trucks in the city and also eliminate many of the concrete plants along the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek that although interesting as an industrial landscape can cause water, soil and noise pollution. Also precast concrete can save time on-site, if the precast is ordered a floor can be built quickly. In Australia, precast is used for housing and office buildings but the biggest benifit is in build factories where the footings can be completed in advance and then the frame and precast can be completed in a few days.

The Shanghai Government will be promoting Precast Concrete throughout the city over the next three years and encouraging construction companies to move to precast systems, I am hoping it the move also occurs in the landscape industry over the next 3 years.

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Calgary Mayor visits China and travels by public transit

Damian Holmes — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 05:37:35 +0000

Often you hear of trade delegations coming to China and experiencing the city. Usually its through the window of a bus or van whilst they run from airport to city and around the city going to meetings. So its refreshing to see Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi taking the time to go and travel on subways and not just do the touristy photo-ops. Of course, the Nenshi took the time for photo-ops who can blame him but he went the extra mile taking the time to travel with residents and see the city from a citizens perspective. Watch the video below for Naheed Nenshi trip around China.

[SOURCE: Calgary Herald]

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